JIHAD

Brethren-in-Islam!

I have repeatedly referred to this point in my previous lectures that Salah, fasting, Hajj and Zakat, which Allah has made obligatory for you and made them pillars of Islam are not like the Ibadaat of other religions comprising such rituals as pooja pat, nazr-o-niaz and jatra etc., that you just perform them and have Allah pleased with you. The truth of the matter is that these functions were made obligatory to prepare you for a big purpose and to train you for a great task. Now that I have enlightened you in detail about this training and the mode of its preparation, the time has come to tell you the purpose for which all this training is required.

Real objective of Islam

Briefly speaking, it would be enough to state that the real objective of Islam is to remove the lordship of man over man and to establish the kingdom of God on Earth. To stake one's life and everything else to achieve this purpose is called Jihad while Salah, fasting, Hajj and Zakat are all meant as a preparation for this task. But as you have since long forgotten this objective as well as the task entrusted to you, and because all 'Madam have been turned into mere Tasawwuf, the meaning I have tried to convey in One small sentence will be regarded by you as an enigma Therefore I shall present before you an elucidation of this objective.

Root of evils—rotten political system

The root of all the evils you find in the world lies in the bad character of the government. Power and wealth rest in the hand of the government. Laws are framed by the government. All the authority of administration is exercised by the government. The force of Police and Army is in the hands of the government. Therefore whatever evils there arc in the life of the people, arc either spread by the government itself or with its help, because the power required to make anything prevail rests with the government. As an example, you notice that adultery is openly indulged in and is carried on publicly in brothels. What is the reason? The reason is nothing else except that adultery is not a crime in the eyes of those who hold governmental power. They arc themselves used to it and allow others to do it. Otherwise if they wanted to stop it, this evil could not be carried on with such impunity. You notice that usury is rampant and the rich are sucking the blood of the poor. Why is it so? This is just because the government itself takes usury and helps those who take it. Its courts pass decrees in favor of usurers and it is with its support that big money-lending houses and banks arc flourishing. You notice that indecency and immorality arc increasing in the people. Why is it so? This is merely because the government has made arrangements to impart this very king of education training to the people and it appreciates these models of morality and humanity which you witness. If you want to produce other types of human beings through a different kind of education and training, wherefrom will you get the resources? And even if you produce a few of a good type, where will they get the jobs? All the sources of livelihood and employment are in the hands of the wrong type of government. You notice that blood shedding is going on extensively in the world. Human knowledge is being used for destruction. The fruits of man's labor are being put to lire, and precious lives are being destroyed with greater callousness than are pieces of clay done away with. Why is it so? This is just because the most wicked and mischievous from amour the children of Adam are holding the reins of authority I leadership of the nations of the world. Since power is in their hands, the world is going towards the direction they want to take it. Whatever purpose they have pest riled tor the use of knowledge, wealth, labor and life, everyone of them is being utilized for those purposes You notice that oppression is being perpetrated everywhere in the world There is no justice anywhere for the weak. The life of the poor man is difficult. Courts hve become shops of traders wherefrom justice is bought in return for money. People are subjected to exorbitant taxes which are being wasted on high salaries of officers, on big buildings, on purchase of armaments and other extravagant expenditures Money-lenders, zamindars, Rajas and Nawabs, title-holders and title-seeker dignitaries, gaddi-occupying Pirs and Mahants, cinema-proprietors, wine-dealers, publishers of obscene books and magazines, owners of gambling dens and many such people are ruining the life, wealth, honor, morality and everything of God's creation and there is nobody to check them. Why is all this happening? Simply because the government is out of gear. The hands that hold power are bad. They themselves commit oppression and also side with oppressors. And whatever oppression is being perpetrated is due to the face that they want it to be done or arc at least tolerant of it. You must have understood from these examples that the ignoble character of a government is the root of all evils. The pollution of people's thoughts, the degeneration of morals, the diversion of human capacities and capabilities into wrong channels, the prevalence of wrong concepts of business and dealings, bad methods of living, the prevalence of oppression and misdeeds and destruction of God's creation, all these result from one thing  the keys of authority and power being in wrong hands. It is obvious that when power will rest in the hands of wrong people and when the resources of livelihood will be under their control, then they will not only themselves spread distortions but every type of malformation will also prevail with their help and support, and as long as power is in their hands, no reform of anything will take place.

First step towards reform---improvement of government

Having grasped this point, it will be easy for you to understand that in order to effect reforms among the people and to bring them on the path of well-being and righteousness after rescuing them from the path of destruction, there is no other remedy except to set right the mutilated shape of government. A man of ordinary sense can understand this point that where people are quite free to commit adultery, no amount of sermons can put a stop to it. But if after getting hold the power of government adultery is stopped by force, people will themselves give up this illicit course and take to the licit one. It will be impossible to succeed if you want to stop by means of sermons the evils of drinking, gambling, usury, bribery, obscene shows, indecent dress, unethical education, and such other things. Of course, with the force of government these evils can be exterminated. It will in no way be possible through advice and preaching to make those people give up their booties who plunder God's creation and ruin their morals. Of course if you take power in your hand and end their mischief by force, then all these evils can be stopped. If you want that the labor, wealth, intelligence and ability of God's creation are rescued from being wasted in wrong channels and are utilized in the right directions, if you wish to see oppression rooted out and the justice prevail, if you desire that there be no mischief on the earth, that man should neither suck nor shed the blood of man, that the lot of depressed and fallen human beings be ameliorated and all human beings be granted equal opportunities of having honor, peace, prosperity and progress, then this task cannot be achieved by mere preaching and exhortation. Of course, if you have the power of government in your hand, all this is quite possible. So this is an obvious matter requiring no great thinking, that no scheme of reform for the people can be implemented without acquiring control of the government machinery. Whoever really wants to root out mischief and chaos from God's earth and is genuinely anxious to ameliorate the condition of God's creation, it is useless for him to work as a mere preacher. He should stand up to finish the government run on wrong principles, snatch power from wrongdoers and establish a government based on correct principles and following a proper system.

Basis of ignoble government—man's rule over man

After grasping this point, go a step further. You have come to know that the cause of the evils which spread among God's servants is a bad government and that it is necessary for reforming it to set right the root-cause. But the question now arises as to what is the basic cause of the badness of the government itself; where is the root of this evil; and what basic reform should be effected in it in order to wipe out the evils mentioned above? The answer to this question is that the lordship of man is over man is the root-cause and there is no other method of reform except that there should be sovereignty of God over man. Do not be surprised at hearing such a brief answer to such a big question. You may do any amount of research work to probe into this question but you will get the same answer as I have given you. Just ponder whether the earth you live upon has been made by God or by some other being? The human beings who inhabit this earth have been created by God or by somebody else? All these countless necessities of life, on which depends the sustenance of man have been provided by God or by somebody else? If the answer to these questions is only this that the earth, the human beings and all these materials have been created by God alone, then it means that the land belongs to God, the wealth belongs to God and the people also belong to God, the wealth belongs to God and the people also belong to God. When this is the situation, how can anybody become their claimant so as to run his writ in the land of God ? How can it be considered correct to govern God's subjects by any other law except that of God or by a law made by the subjects themselves ? How can your intellect accept the position that the subjects themselves ? How can your intellect accept the position that the land is owned by one being and the writ runs there of another being, that a property belongs to one person and some other person becomes its owner, that the subjects belong to one authority and some other authority rules over them ? Such a happening is clearly against justice. And because this is against justice, wherever and whenever such a situation is found, the result is always bad. Those persons who get power to make laws and run their writ bound to commit blunders due to ignorance, while some of them deliberately perpetrate oppression and injustice in order to satisfy their corporeal urges. The reason is that firstly they do not possess enough knowledge to frame correct laws and rules to conduct human affairs, and, far more dangerous than this, is the fact that, being unmindful of the fear of God and of accountability to Him, they become reckless and unbridled. It is quite easy to understand that after gaining authority and power, what else will a man become except an unbridled individual who has no fear of God, who has no thought of being accountable to anybody, and who considers in his own way that there is 'no one above him to question what he does. Do you think that such a person will

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stick to truth and justice when he holds in his head the key to providing food to the people, when he controls the life and property of the masses, when lakhs of heads bow to his command ? Can you expect him to prove a trustee of public treasury ? Can you hope that he will abstain from violating people's rights, from taking illicit money and from subjugating God's creation in accordance with his own whims and desires ? Do you regard it possible that such a person will himself follow the right path and make others to walk on that path ? Never, Never ! Such a happening is irrational. The experience of thousands of years testifies to the contrary. You are today witnessing with your own eyes that to what extent those who feel no fear of God and are heedless of accountability in the Hereafter, have become oppressive, betrayers of trust and evil-doers after they have acquired power.

Basis of reform—God's lordship over man

Therefore the reform needed in the very basis of the government is that there should not be lordship of man over man but that of God over man. Those who run the government must not become supreme sovereigns but, recognizing God as their Sovereign, they must work as his deputy and trustee and must fulfill their responsibilities with the consciousness that ultimately they have to submit an account of their trust to that Monarch Who is the Knower of the seen and unseen. The law should be based on the guidance of that God Who has knowledge of all realities and is the fountainhead of wisdom. Nobody should have the power to change this law or to amend it or to cancel it so that it may not be distorted due to the infusion of human ignorance, selfishness and improper desires. This is that basic reform that Islam wants to introduce. Islam demands from those who accept God as their sovereign (not imaginary but real sovereign) and affirm

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faith in the law sent by Him through His Prophet (peace be upon him), that they should gird up their points to enforce their Monarch's laws in His land and break the power of the rebels among His subjects who have become supreme sovereigns, and rescue Allah's subjects from becoming subjects of others. In the eyes of Islam it is certainly not enough for you to believe God as God and His law as true law. Simultaneous with your faith in these two verities, the duty devolves on you that wherever you are, in whichever country you live, you must get up there for the reform of God's creation, try to transform the wrong principles of government into correct principles, snatch away the power of legislation and lordship from those who do not fear God and are unbridled. And then taking over the leadership and superintendence of God's servants, conduct the affairs of the government in accordance with God's laws and with belief in their responsibility and accountability in the Hereafter as also in God being the Knower of the unseen. The name of this striving is Jihad.

Governance—a hard way

But everyone knows what an awful thing is lordship. The very idea of acquiring it arouses in a man's heart a tempest of greed. The corporeal urges induce that if the treasures of the earth and the necks of God's creation conic into our grasp, we shall rule like a god to our heart's content. It is not so difficult to take possession of the powers of Government as it is difficult to protect oneself from becoming a god after acquiring power, and work as a servant of God. Then what benefit is there if after removing one Pharaoh, you yourself become a Pharaoh? Therefore, before calling upon you to undergo his severe trial, Islam considers it necessary to prepare you for it. You can never have the right to rise with claim to government and fight with the world till such time as you cleanse your heart of selfishness and sensualism, until you develop in yourself such purity of thought that your fight is not meant for personal and national interests but solely for the pleasure of God and for the reformation of God's creation, and that until this capability gets stabilized in you after gaining authority, you will not follow your own desires but will be firm in following the law of God. The mere fact that you have entered Islam by reciting the Kalima does not at all entitle you that Islam will give you the order to attack God's creation and then, in the name of God and His messenger, you do all those evil acts which the oppressors and rebels of God perpetrate. Before you are ordered to undertake such a tremendous responsibility, Islam considers it necessary to develop in you strength enough to be able to bear this burden.

'Ibadaat'—a training course

These Salah, fasting, Zakat and Hajj are in reality meant for this very preparation and training. Just as the countries of the world first impart special training to their men for the army, police and civil service and then take work from them, in the same way the Deen of Allah (Islam) also first gives training in this manner to all those men who get themselves recruited in it for service. Then it wants to take work from them for Jihad and Divine government. The difference, however, is that for the work the governments of the world take from their men no qualities of moral excellence, piety and fear of God are required. Therefore, they just try to use these men as routine workers though they may be adulterers, drunkards, dishonest and wicked to any extent. But since the work to be taken from its men by Allah's Deen is wholly and solely of a moral character, it considers it much more important than the routine work to make its men God-fearing and virtuous. In fact, it aims at developing so much strength in them that when they rise with the claim of establishing the Caliphate of God on earth, they must prove true to their claim. If they fight, the aim should not be to acquire for themselves wealth, property and land but it must be proved by their deeds that their fight is purely for Allah's pleasure and for the benefit and well-being of His creation. If they are victorious they must not become proud and headstrong. On the other hand, their heads should be bowed before God. If they become rulers, they should not enslave the people. In fact, by becoming themselves God's slaves they should not allow others to be slaves of anyone except God. If they take possession of earth's treasures, they should not fill their own pockets or the pockets of their kinsmen or community people but should judiciously distribute the God-given bounties among all His slaves, and, like a truthful trustee, should work with the consciousness that an eye is watching them in all situations and that there is someone above to whom they have to render account of every single pie. There is no other method possible at all for this training except these Ibadaat. And when Islam prepares its men in this manner, then it tells them:

"Now you are the most pious slaves of God on the surface of earth. So go ahead and fight, and remove the rebels of God from the government and take over the powers of caliphate."

"Ye are the best community that has been raised up for the guidance and reformation of mankind. Ye enjoin righteousness and forbid evil; and ye believe in Allah." (Al-Qur'an 3: 110)

Blessings of Government run by God-conscious persons

You can imagine in what excellent condition God's creation will be where the army, police, judiciary, tehsildars, tax-collectors and all other government functionaries comprise such officers and personnel who are all God-conscious and mindful of being answerable to him in the Hereafter, where all the rules and regulations of government are formulated on the basis of the guidance vouchsafed by Allah, in which there is not the slightest possibility of injustice and ignorance, and where a timely rectification is done of every evil and evil act and the government is constantly ready to promote virtue and piety with its power and material resources. Then if you reflect a little you will easily understand this point that when this type of government after functioning for some time will set right the detestable habits of the people; when it will bar all avenues of illicit earning, lewdness, oppression, indecency and immorality; when after giving a decent burial to the wrong type of education and training, it will reform the ideas of the people through the wholesome system of education and training; and when under its aegis people will get a chance of leading their lives in clean and chaste atmosphere of justice and fairness, peace and tranquility, good character and pleasing manners; then those eyes, which had turned blind by suffering for a long time under the supremacy of people who are vicious and heedless of God, will be gradually enabled to perceive and appreciate the Truth. Those hearts which are rusted because of the immoralities stretching over centuries would cast off this rust and become clear like a mirror quite fit to have the glimpse of Truth and then radiate it to others. At that time it will not at all be difficult for the people to understand this simple and plain fact that in reality Allah alone is their God and that no one else is entitled to lordship over them, and that in reality that Prophet (peace be on him) was truthful through whom the truthful laws were vouchsafed to humanity. The point which looks extremely difficult today to instill in the minds of the people will automatically penetrate therein. The point which cannot be explained today through speeches and books will be understood by them conveniently as if there was never any complication in it. For those who will see the difference with their own eyes as to what happens when the affairs of the world are run by man-made laws and as to what is the position when these very affairs are conducted according to the Divine system it will be easy to affirm faith, and difficult to reject it, in the oneness of God and truthfulness of the Prophet (peace be on him). This will be just like making it easy to pick flowers and difficult to pluck thorns after feeling the difference between flower and thorn. At the time it will require great obstinacy to reject the truth of Islam and stick to Kufr and atheism, and hardly five or ten persons in a thousand will be found who will exhibit unusual obstinacy.

Brethren! Now I hope you have thoroughly understood for what purpose are meant these Salah, fasting, Hajj and Zakat. You have been thinking till now, and for a long period you have been involved in the misunderstanding, that these 'Ibadaat are merely a kind of Puja pat. It was not at all explained to you that these are preparations for a big service. For this very reason you have been carrying on these rites without any purpose before you, and the idea never occurred to you to get ready for the work for which 'Ibadaat were really prescribed. But now I tell you that all the 'Ibadaat of that person are meaningless in whose heart there is no intent of Jihad and who does not keep in view this purpose of Jihad. If you imagine that by these meaningless 'Ibadaat you can win the favor of God, then on going before Him you will yourself see how much they have brought you nearer to Him.